Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah practiced Thursday. Will they play Friday?

Years from now, any time this era of Bulls' basketball is reviewed, injuries will be a dominant storyline.

The Bulls, who still have produced plenty of highlights, can't seem to get away from them.

But on a Thursday in which Derrick Rose and Joakim Noah fully participated in practice and Taj Gibson was scheduled to re-join the team in Boston, perhaps some good fortune is on the way.

Then again, given that Rose and Noah are listed as probable and Gibson as out for Friday's matinee against the Celtics, perhaps not.

This is for sure: The conservative approach the Bulls are taking this season isn't going to change. If Noah, who sat Tuesday night in Denver with effusion of his surgically-repaired left knee, needs another second of back-to-back games off, so be it.

Though both the Bulls and Rose want him to string games together, if a nagging injury develops, that will get time too.

Gibson hasn't practiced since spraining his left ankle for the third time in seven months on Nov. 21 in Portland, Ore., so expect his absence to continue.

"Restrictions and being smart is something we talk about on a pretty consistent basis as far as where guys are and where they will be," general manager Gar Forman said way back on the club's media day Sept. 29. "Especially if there's any type of injury or they're struggling physically at all. I think that's something that happens with all 30 teams in the NBA."

Noah missed Tuesday's loss to the Denver Nuggets because of left knee effusion and could...

(K.C. Johnson)

Rose didn't finish Tuesday's loss in Denver because he wasn't moving well in trying to finish his first back-to-back of the season after sitting four games with a strained left hamstring. Previously, Rose missed four games to sprained ankles.

Rose, who has played in just seven of 15 games and only finished four, has remained unswayed by criticism or the hysteria swirling around him. He is listening to his body, not outside noise.

This is something to which Grant Hill can relate. In an interview last November, just before Rose tore his right meniscus to end his first comeback from a torn left ACL, the NBA-TV Inside Stuff co-host acknowledged the difficulty.

"Coming back is not as easy as people may think," Hill said by phone then. "Physically, I think you get back faster. The mental and emotional part is just as important and harder. You have to get used to the speed of the game. Even with an entire summer to prepare and preseason and practices, it takes time."

Hill, then one of the game's dominant players, endured a nightmarish four-season stretch from 2000-04. He underwent four ankle surgeries and played in just 47 games after originally breaking his left ankle during the 2000 NBA playoffs.

"You have to regain that trust and belief in your body," Hill said then. "Your body betrayed you when it never had done that before. Psychologically, that can mess with you.

"Everybody is different. And everybody attacks it differently and recovers differently. I was just so happy and appreciative and thankful to be back that I never got that 'Rocky,' 'Eye of the Tiger' feeling back. That's the regret I have."

Still, Hill made one more All-Star Game and once missed just three games over a three-season stretch with the Suns later in his career.

The Bulls, for now, would settle merely for keeping their rotation intact.